MI’s Rohit Sharma credits Abhishek Nayar with two-word post after match-winning knock vs CSK

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Mumbai Indians star batter Rohit Sharma credited sacked India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar following his match-winning performance against Chennai Super Kings in front of his home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, April 20.

After a string of poor performances in seven matches, Rohit Sharma finally got back to his groove and played a brilliant unbeaten knock of 76 off 45 balls at an impressive strike rate of 168.89 in MI’s 177-run chase. He also formed a crucial unbeaten 114-run partnership for the second wicket with Suryakumar Yadav, who played an innings of 68 off 30 balls, including a match-winning six to help the hosts chase down the target with 27 balls to spare.

With his comeback match-winning knock, Rohit Sharma surpassed Shikhar Dhawan’s tally of 6,769 runs to become the second leading run-getter in the IPL. The former Mumbai Indians captain’s tally stands at 6786 runs, including 2 centuries and 44 fifties, at an average of 29.63 and a strike rate of 131.61 in 264 matches.

Rohit Sharma says ‘Thanks Bro' to Abhishek Nayar

A day after Rohit Sharma played a match-winning knock to help Mumbai Indians clinch their third consecutive win of the season, the star batter took to his Instagram story and thanked Abhishek Nayar.

On his Instagram story, MI star batter wrote, ‘Thanks Bro @ABHISHEKNAYAR’, with a picture of him celebrating his half-century, apparently as a way of expressing his gratitude to former Mumbai teammate for helping him turn his game around. Rohit Sharma and Abhishek Nayar have known each other for a very long time as they both played for Mumbai in domestic cricket.

Rohit Sharma’s instagram story for Abhishek Nayar came just a few days after the latter was sacked from the position of India’s assistant coach by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The BCCI took a whip at the coaching staff led by Gautam Gambhir following disastrous Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour, where Team India failed to defend their title for the first time in 10 years after the five-match Test series 1-3 defeat to Australia,

Along with Abhishek Nayar, BCCI also sacked fielding coach T Dilip and conditioning coach Soham Desai. Currently, Team India’s coaching staff includes head coach Gautam Gambhir, bowling coach Morne Morkel, and assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate.

Abhishek Nayar returns to KKR as assistant coach

After being sacked by BCCI, Abhishek Nayar returned to Kolkata Knight Riders as the assistant coach for the ongoing IPL season. Nayar was KKR’s coaching staff from 2018 to 2024 and worked closely with mentor Gautam Gambhir and coach Chandrakant Pandit during the team’s title-winning campaign in the last IPL season.

Abhishek Nayar carries a wealth of experience of playing domestic cricket and IPL over the years. In first-class cricket, the 41-year-old has scored 5749 runs, including 13 centuries and 32 fifties, at an average of 45.62 in 103 matches. In List A cricket, Nayar has amassed 2145, including 2 centuries and 10 fifties, at an average of 31.08 in 99 matches.

In his IPL career, Abhishek Nayar scored 672 runs at an average of 17.68 and picked 9 wickets in 60 matches while representing Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors India, and Rajasthan Royals.